Made it to 10! Happy holidays everyone !

Mu

Book I

Chapter 10: A minor setback

“I was unable to procure a mana compass, but this will serve well enough as a rough measure of your mana force,” said Luca as he took a seat and motioned for Aran to do the same beside him. He handed the lodestone to Aran, “You know what to do with this.”

Aran felt the familiar tug of the lodestone and let his mana flow into it, causing it to glow in response. After a few seconds, the lodestone, which was now shining brightly, shuddered and started cracking. Aran quickly suppressed his mana and tried withdrawing it, but to no avail. The cracks extended, spreading throughout the stone, and, with a heave, shattered into many small pieces.

“What?!” exclaimed Gerand. Regaining his composure after a few breaths, he asked, “What grade was the stone?”

“Lesser, grade four,” said Luca, his mouth dry from shock. With the flick of his wrist, he took out another lodestone from his spatial ring, “We will use this one instead. It’s a grade one, regular lodestone.” He handed it to Aran. Once again, Aran let his mana flow into this new stone. It gradually became brighter. The draining steadily slowed, and Aran felt a strange sensation on his palm. Mana moved back and forth through his palm, rhythmically and continuously, like waves in ocean. As his mana was drained, an equal amount flowed back into him. The gem stopped becoming brighter, settling at an intensity half that of the gem that shattered.

“About half… That’s about 500…” Gerand’s voice trailed off as he exchanged a complicated look with Celeste. Celeste threw her hands up and shook her head. Tonight’s events had thrown all common knowledge out of the window.

“Don’t worry. I know what you’re thinking, but I feel absolutely fine,” said Aran, reassuring the adults that he was not in any danger. Luca stared at his son in disbelief and sighed, “We believe you. It’s just difficult to… process. Let’s move on.”

Luca pushed the aura gem towards Aran. Gerand leaned against the wall and look intently at the aura gem, hoping to be surprised again. Celeste sat down by the table and stared at the gem, with an expectant look in her eyes, while tapping her fingers on her thigh.

“Like before, let the gem guide the mana out of you. Don’t worry about breaking this one; it naturally disperses any additional mana. It should,” said Luca, half doubting his last words in the face of everything he had seen tonight. Aran reached out to the gem with his right hand and let his mana flow into the gem. An immense amount of small wisps of light rapidly condensed within the gem, appearing a hazy white color. All three adults squinted, trying to make out some sort of color from the wisps. Other than the ring of white around the wisps, it appeared colorless, like bubbles rapidly churning upwards in boiling water. Aran raised a brow, uncertain of what he was seeing.

“Stop, pause for a second, and try again,” Celeste spoke, a small quiver in her voice. Aran complied and withdrew his hand. Taking a deep breath to calm his mind, he touched the gem once more, resulting in a similar result. Only, this time, there were a larger number of colorless wisps, moving more furiously, rapidly propagating outwards, as if trying to escape the prison that was the colorless shell of the gem.

Celeste whimpered, tears building up on the corner of her eyes, “You can stop now.” Luca sucked in a deep breath and uttered, “Damn it.” Gerand rammed the wall he’s leaning against with the bottom of his fist.

“What?” asked Aran, still in the dark.

“Aran, I want you to listen to me carefully,” Luca said slowly, looking Aran in his eyes. “I want you to understand this that this does not change who you are and how we feel about you. This is not the only thing that defines you. You… You are attributeless.”

Hearing Luca’s words, tears started flowing down the side of Celeste’s cheeks. These were not tears of disappointment; she would never be disappointed by her outstanding son. Rather they were tears of concern and guilt. On one hand, she was apprehensive of her son’s reaction to this news. On the other, she was arrested by guilt, as if she had failed him. She blamed herself for the possibility of her elemental incompatibility with Luca being the cause of Aran’s condition.

“Attributeless?” repeated Aran, already forming an idea of what this unfamiliar term meant.

“You are a mu, which means void of anything. The mana in your body has no elements or attributes. It is pure mana; pure energy with no true utility. The fact that you can absorb mana is bizarre. And, even with your deep innate mana force, you will not be able to become a mage. Disregarding the question of whether you can form a mana pool, even if you do, with no attributes, a mana pool will be…” Luca fumbled at that last word.

“… Useless,” interjected Gerand, finishing the sentence for Luca. It was too cruel of a thing for a father to say to his son.

Aran smiled bitterly. When the word attributeless was spoken, Aran had already anticipated this answer. But he was not expecting pure mana to be worthless to a mage. Wasn’t something that was purer, better? Aran voiced the thoughts in his head, “How can having pure mana be useless?”

Celeste had calmed her emotions and responded quietly, “Because there is no way of converting it to perform work. Without any elemental mana, you won’t be able to conjure a fire or condense water. Imagine a fully charged mana stone. Unattached to any magical apparatus, it merely sits there, with no way of displaying its power. Pure mana is the stone while elemental mana is the apparatus.”

“Most spells require some form of elemental mana to act as the catalyst to transform pure mana. Lacking that, you can only perform cursory spells,” added Gerand, taking the reins of the villain. No parent should have to explain this to their child. He motioned for Luca to step aside and sat in front of Aran.

Despite his iron grip over his emotions, Aran felt a tinge of disappointment. However, he was not one to dwell on the impossible. Aran closed his eyes and cleared his thoughts. If it were truly impossible. He quickly resolved to gather any information he could on his attributeless state. Even if it ended up being unfruitful, he still had two more stages to the Primordial God’s Foundations. This was not a dead end, he had decided. Determined to form his mana pool with the help of magic circles, Aran pushed his case.

He opened his eyes and stared resolutely at Gerand, “Grandfather, you said attributeless spells were cursory. So, am I to understand that an attributeless mage can cast spells?”

To the adults, the words attributeless mage was an oxymoron. However, they had mistakenly sympathized with Aran, concluding that his line of questioning was coming from a position of denial.

“Attributeless mage? If there were one, there would only be a few spells available to them. And only one truly useful one – mana shield, a spell used by mages to defend against both physical and magical attacks,” replied Gerand, hoping to satiate Aran’s curiosity and, maybe, console him. Convincing the boy of his inability to become a mage would have to wait for tonight’s development to truly sink in.

“So it is possible for pure mana to be used?” pressed Aran, finding some confidence in Gerand’s answer.

“Sure, if you present it in that manner. But not in the truest sense of magic,” Gerand responded patiently.

“But it can be used. So if it’s possible to use that mana, then, it would also be conceivable to think that coalescing a mana pool is possible, right?” continued Aran, sharpening his gaze at Gerand.

Gerand instinctively leaned backwards and found himself at a loss of words at Aran’s imposing manner and rationale chain of argument. A second later, he tilted forward again, “We don’t know the answer to that. While it may theoretically be possible, we need to know more before we decide. After all, pure mana, while the most powerful, raw source of energy, is also the least stable form of it. Your body might… explode. ”

“We will try, but it is unlikely that we will know more,” Celeste remarked, chiming in with sadness in her voice. “You, my dear son, are the only attributeless person with a high innate mana force in the history of magic. I understand your frustration, but nothing we say or do can change the fact. And we are unwilling to proceed without knowing the risks.”

As Aran was about to raise another point, Celeste spoke, stopping him, “I believe I speak for all of us when I say this. Regardless of what you say, our decision is firm. Your mana pool coalescing will be postponed indefinitely. I promise you, however, that we will do everything we can to learn more about your condition.”

Aran looked upwards and sighed. Not knowing enough about the nature of mana, his arguments would be unconvincing. He yielded, a strategic retreat.

***

Aran’s indifference to being tested as attributeless came as a surprise to the adults. If the boy was disappointed, he hid it well. He had carried on with his daily activities with the same unfazed temperament as before. The only indication that Aran even remembered anything about his arcane assessment was his insistence of helping Celeste with her research on attributeless mana. Celeste was rescued from her psychologically mire by her son’s impassive reaction and determination. Instead of being weighed down by the guilt, as she did before, she had wholeheartedly refocused her attention towards understanding Aran’s condition, even given the low likelihood of ever discovering anything. The mother and son duo had met daily, often working into the late evenings.

Arcane theory was foreign to Aran. Being absent from his previous world and having no concepts similar to it, Aran had struggled in his sessions with Celeste. Despite her son slowing her down, Celeste, who was delighted at his interest. She had patiently, even happily, instructed Aran on the basics and had personally demonstrated some of the concepts he had trouble grasping. In an effort to understand Aran’s limitations, Celeste had tried making Aran perform mana manipulation and basic, attributeless magic. While Aran was able to manipulate the mana within his body to an acceptable proficiency, doing so beyond his body proved challenging. Celeste had attributed it to Aran’s lack of a tower and did not repeat the exercise.

In the span of a week, both of them had gone through the books in the Steele estate on pure mana and attributeless spells, all three books among the hundreds stocked in this library. Aran shook his head. Applications of pure mana were truly lacking. After exhausting the limited information in the estate, Celeste planned to visit the Magician’s Society in Vilna. Aran had asked to tag along, eager to experience firsthand the world beyond Wales, a proposition that Celeste had agreed to. They visited the armory, suited with light leather armor and arming themselves with swords and bows. Packing four day’s worth of supplies, Celeste and Aran left the Steele estate on horseback, due east on a partially paved road, maintained by the Merchant’s Union as the main trade route between Wales and Vilna. Celeste wore her mage robes above her armor, a deterrent to any human orchestrated problems on the road.

The first day of the trip was relatively uneventful, with them making good speed. The road had taken them beside vast golden fields of wheat, which supplied a quarter of the grain consumed in Iridis and was the main source of livelihood of many commoners in Lapilla. Aran had continued his informal education on arcane theory while travelling. Celeste insisted that she would lecture during the somewhat leisurely ride, something that Aran welcomed. They spent the evening in an inn at a small village, a short ride from the border to Mir, the prefecture of which Vilna was the capital.

The duo set off early the next morning, but this time with a hurried trot, and without the same conversation as the day before. The next part of the journey involved travelling on an unpaved portion of the road, close to the outskirts of the Mila Forest, known to harbor magical beasts. While a rare occurrence, these beasts sometimes wander to the edges, and more powerful and ferocious ones, may target small bands of travellers. As a fifth circle mage, escaping would not be a problem to Celeste, but she would rather avoid it altogether, to prevent overexerting their mounts.

This provided both the opportunity for silent introspection after days of working so closely together. Celeste truly comprehended her son’s intellectual talent. His teachers were right; beyond being gifted with a phenomenal memory, Aran’s capacity for comprehension and critical thinking were equally impressive. He takes after you, they had said.

On the other hand, Aran had finally understood his mother’s genius. Beyond the breadth and depth of her knowledge of the arcane, she approached it with a methodical and critical nature, allowing her to wholly understand the concepts and demonstrate them in ease using layman terms. Aran had the impression that this extended beyond her scholarly life, into her daily conduct. He felt both liberated and stifled; liberated that he may convince her with rational arguments, and stifled that he had to be more cautious in practicing his otherworldly cultivation techniques around her.

When their mounts’ hooves hit gravel, Celeste visibly relaxed. After taking a short break for the horses’ benefit, they hurried on to the next village, half a day into the border of Mir, where they spent the night. The rest of the journey took them across a landscape marked with more wheat fields, which supplied another quarter of grain consumption in Iridis. Engaged in deep conversation, Celeste and Aran did not notice the passing of time, as they rapidly approached the gates of Vilna right before sundown.

Vilna was a city, many times larger than the town of Wales, with stonewalls built around the main city and thatched houses spread out beyond the walls. Its development was triggered by its strategic location; beside flat fertile lands suitable for wheat cultivation, and on the only major trade route between the western and eastern prefectures. Because of its strategic location, major guilds had branches here, including the Magician’s Society and, especially, the Merchant’s Union.

Multiple guards were posted on the southern entrance, performing cursory inspections and as precaution against potential disturbances. Celeste, wearing her magician robe, was allowed into the main city without any hassle. The city was circular and was separated into four quadrants. Celeste led Aran towards the southwest quadrant, where a tower seven-stories tall could be seen from the southern entrance. They dismounted as they got to the tower and handed the reins with a few copper coins over to a grinning stable boy. The copper coins were his to keep. The boy took the horses into the stable and returned with two leather strips with a unique number written on each. Celeste thanked the boy and headed towards the entrance. Entering the tower, they were greeted by a clerk, a youth seated behind a desk with a few stacks of paper neatly arranged on the side. He was wearing a grey robe, with a single white button, an initiate’s token, bearing three grey vertical lines at the nape. A rank three initiate.

“Welcome to the Mage’s Society in Vilna. How may I help you today, magister?” he greeted politely, glancing at the token at her nape.

“I am Celeste Steele, and I sent a letter a few days ago indicating my interest to use one of the studies here,” she responded while taking a blue-colored, crystalline card out of the inner pocket of her robe. The clerk nodded and quickly flipped through a stack of papers on his right, and pulling a sheet out.

“Yes, Magister Celeste Steele of Wales. Your study is ready, on the second floor,” he said, tracing his index finger on the bottom of the page. He turned around and scanned the cupboard with small drawers behind him. He opened a drawer labeled “2-5” and fished out a silver colored card and placed it on the desk, on a grey rectangular portion of the desk. Noticing Aran standing beside Celeste, the clerk took another card out and stacked it above the one he took out earlier. “I just need your magi-card as verification.”

Celeste handed the card in her hand over. The clerk aligned the paper from before onto another grey area of the same shape and size. He tapped Celeste’s card onto an obsidian-colored square on the desk. The card flickered and Celeste’s name, rank, attributes, and position flashed onto the card. The grey portion of the desk with the paper and cards lighted up dimly, and a mark appeared on all three. The clerk smiled, and handed both cards over to Celeste while refilling the paper, “Thank you. This indicates that you will be staying with us as well. Two beds. Is that still true?”

Celeste nodded while taking all three cards. The clerk continued, “Your room will be in the living quarters behind the tower, and my coworker will help you with it. Feel free to visit either your study or room first. The first four floors are the library, and if you need to use a practice space or lab on the floors above, please let us know. The form indicates one week’s stay, but feel free to extend it at least one day before the end date. Please enjoy your stay here and thank you for visiting the Magician’s Society.”

“Thank you, Initiate…” said Celeste with a small pause at the end while looking at the clerk.

“Bram… Bram Ranor,” Bram fumbled hastily, not expecting Celeste to ask for his name. Most mages wouldn’t bother with initiates; much less ask for their names.

“Well, thank you Initiate Ranor,” repeated Celeste, smiling sweetly at the clerk, pulling Aran deeper into the tower. Bram felt a warm feeling on his reddening cheeks as he stared blankly at the beautiful fifth circle mage walking away.

With night falling, the inside of the mage’s tower was well lit with mana lamps. Shelves were built into the stone walls, lined end to end with books. The center of the tower had another circular wall, with openings on four ends. Briefly glancing inside, Aran noticed shelves and shelves of books, with signs hanging over them indicating various topics. Mages, donning their robes, were shuffling between them, often with one or two initiates in tow, rapidly scanning the shelves for their book of interest. Celeste led Aran to the back, and traversed a tunnel, which opened into the living quarters. Another clerk greeted them, and showed them to their room. After a hearty meal and a warm shower, sleep found both exhausted travellers quickly.

Aran woke up refreshed the next morning, eager to begin. After a quick breakfast, Celeste brought him back into the tower, up a flight of stairs, and ended up in front a heavy mahogany door with the numbers “2-5” written on it. Celeste tapped the silver card onto the handle. The door unlatched with a soft click, and shuddered as it slowly opened inwards, revealing a room with a long desk, multiple chairs, empty shelves, and a blackboard on one side of the room. A large window let in natural light, and mana lamps were on the wall and table for the evenings. There were two lecterns on the side of the door, each with a thick tome, made of thick vellum paper and bounded with high-quality leather. Hanging off them were a pen and small sheets of paper, with a few pieces torn off. Celeste opened the tome closer to the door, and scanned the neatly written, perfectly spaced words.

“Second floor, section three. Section five,” she said, tearing off a piece of paper and writing on it. She tore off a second sheet, and continued, “First floor, section one. Section three.” She paused for a second, and flipped through the tome, ending on a page with the title “Magical Beasts” written on the top.

She hastily jotted down onto the second sheet of paper, and handed it to Aran with one of the silver cards from yesterday, “I want you to go to the first floor and get these books for me. The layout of the library should be self-evident, but if you can’t find your way around, ask a librarian. There should be one stationed at the center of each floor.” Aran nodded and went down to the first floor. He scanned the shelves on the outer circle and noticed a sign saying “Textbooks” on the top. He walked into the inner circle.

Like Celeste mentioned, the organization was quickly evident to Aran with the numbering of sections and subsections starting numerically from the north entrance. He quickly located the sections Celeste had written down and scanned for the books she had asked him to collect. A few mages had noticed Aran, and stared at him with puzzled expressions. A child who looked six-years old in his build, with features that looked younger, and not wearing an initiate robe was a rare sight in the tower. However, they knew of the strict entry requirements into the tower, and quickly dismissed any idea of unauthorized entry, returning to their tasks at hand.

Aran had located the last book he needed, but was on a shelf too high for him to reach. He looked around, but found nothing that could help him. He set the books on a small, cube-shaped table beside the shelf holding the book of interest, and walked towards the center, where a librarian, a third circle mage, sat behind a circular desk. She was staring at an open book while resting her head against her right hand, deep in thought.

“Hello!” Aran said, softly but excitedly. The startled librarian looked up, and then down, and a flash of surprise flitted across her eyes. She sat up, and regained her calm. Although she arrived at the same conclusion as the other mages, she couldn’t help but sound a little doubtful, “Hi… How may I help you?”

“I’m trying to get a book off the top shelf… But I couldn’t reach it,” he said, shyly.

“Oh. We have stepladders located under the desks between the shelves. You just have to find a latch underneath it and pull it out. Here, let me show you,” she said sweetly, her guard lowered by Aran’s actions. She stepped out and Aran held her hand, as he pulled her towards the shelf, a happy bounce in his step.

She smiled at his excitement and asked, “With whom did you come?”

Aran stared back at her with wide eyes, “My mom! She’s upstairs, and I insisted that I could do this alone. Please don’t tell her!”

They arrived at the shelf and the librarian showed Aran the latch under the desk. With a click, the bottom slid out, revealing a small stepladder. Aran looked astonished and thanked the librarian. She pushed the ladder back, and with another click it was secured in place. She offered to get the book for Aran, to which he said, “Classification of magical beasts,” and pointed to the top shelf. The librarian pulled the volume out and handed it to Aran.

“Thank you big sister! You’re the best!” chirped Aran happily. “Can you tell me your name?”

The librarian grinned and said, “You’re welcome. You can call me Nina. Is that all you need?”

Aran nodded, and put the last book on top of his stack. He grabbed the bottom of the stack, and effortlessly lifted all five books, to the surprise of Nina.

“Are you okay carrying all those?” she asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

“I’m fine. It’s my training. I’ll be a powerful warrior mage in the future. Thank you again big sis Nina,” Aran nodded as he left the room. Nina gazed at the young child leave, smiled, and went back to her desk.

Returning to the room, Aran found that Celeste was not back yet. He set the books down and walked towards the lectern to inspect the tomes. They were titled [Books] and [Research papers]. He was about to flip the latter open when the door opened inwards. Celeste entered and beckoned Aran to join her at the table. From her spatial ring, she took out a dozen books and a few folders, holding pieces of paper tied together with strings.

Celeste sat Aran down and took a seat in front of him. She stared deep into his unflinching eyes and said, “You’re really not disappointed or afraid are you?”

Aran shook his head, “Why would I be?”

“Has it not sunk in yet? It is likely that even with our effort here you can never be a mage,” replied Celeste, with a bitter smile.

Aran scratched his head and shot Celeste a quizzical look, as if she had just asked a pointless question. “Mother, you mentioned that there were two components to a spell; mana and a mage’s ability to comprehend and direct the spell. I don’t lack the former. I will gain the latter.”

“Coalescing your mana pool could be dangerous,” she pressed.

Aran shrugged, “It could be. But, ultimately we don’t know. Not knowing and it actually being dangerous are two completely separate things. And, I don’t think it’s impossible. If pure mana is as unstable as you claim it is, how is it that mana stones are so inert? If it will explode, it would’ve exploded in my body by now. I understand my body’s condition well. I think I will be fine. No, I know I will be fine.”

Celeste moved her lips, about to say something, and held herself back. She furrowed her eyebrows, her eyes staring off to the side. His argument made some sense.

Aran added, “Mother, even if we learn nothing, I believe that I should coalesce my mana pool. It is unlike us to be held back by fear of the unknown. Being attributeless? Having limited spells? It’s all just a minor setback.”

Celeste refocused her eyes on Aran and found a determined look staring back at her. For the first time since Aran’s arcane assessment, she found weight in her son’s words. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them with newfound resolve.

‘Let’s not fail him.’